Sunrisers Hyderabad’s spin-bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan has delivered his assessment of ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah‘s poor form in IPL 2026.
It is no secret that the Mumbai Indians’ Bumrah has struggled in IPL 2026. His struggles were compounded in MI’s encounter against SRH on April 29. The Bumrah-led Mumbai bowling attack failed to defend a target of 244 runs and slumped to their sixth loss of IPL 2026.
Bumrah, in particular, was off-colour. He conceded 54 runs in his four overs without taking any wickets. All of SRH’s batters took turns depositing Bumrah into the stands. Abhishek Sharma, Travid Head, Heinrich Klaasen, and Salil Arora all contributed to the takedown of Jasprit Bumrah to deliver SRH their fourth win in a row.
“It is difficult for bowlers these days” – Muralitharan
Muralitharan spoke to reporters after SRH’s win over MI at the Wankhede Stadium. He was asked why bowlers were finding it more difficult to survive in the league these days.
“It’s very difficult for bowlers these days, because every team, not just us have openers who don’t care about getting out. They just go after the bowling. When we were playing, 40-50 runs and losing 1 wicket was a good score, now the average score in the first 6 overs is between 70 and 80. So, that’s why the scores are going beyond 200 these days,” he said.
“The batters don’t respect even someone like Jasprit Bumrah” – Muralitharan
The Sri Lankan further reflected on SRH’s decision to chase and the performance of their batters.
“We knew with this wicket [that] it was a very good wicket because they played the T20 World Cup at the same venue and RCB played versus Mumbai and that was high scoring. We thought chasing would be easy because our batters are in form because the top order are getting so many runs, and they are getting them quickly,” he continued.
“Even the bowlers of Jasprit Bumrah’s calibre or anybody else, the batsmen don’t respect [them]. They go after the bowling [from] the first ball itself, so they achieve whatever their goals are,” the legend concluded.
Jasprit Bumrah’s poor form in IPL 2026
Bumrah has basically been a statistical anomaly in IPL 2026. His usual incisive self has not been seen in the tournament at all.
In 8 matches, he has bowled 30 overs and taken just two wickets. His bowling average of 132 is among the worst by any bowler in a single IPL season.
Normally known to be a consistent match-winner, Jasprit Bumrah has struggled this year. These struggles have simply compounded the Mumbai Indians’ problems.
Also Read: IPL 2026: Mumbai Indians coach admits Jasprit Bumrah is having a bad season
Mumbai Indians’ next match
Mumbai Indians will take on arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings next. They have already lost to CSK once and are currently ninth on the IPL 2025 points table with just 2 wins in 8 matches.
That game will take place in Chennai on May 2, and a loss could spell doom for Mumbai’s qualification chances.
